Adia Barnes finished her rookie season as the UA women’s basketball coach one year ago, going 14-16 overall, 5-13 in the Pac-12 and finishing in 11th place in the conference.
When Barnes looked ahead to her No. 35-ranked recruiting class for the upcoming season, she was cautious and said not to expect much.
She knew the second year of building a program would be the hardest. Barnes was replacing five seniors with freshman who didn’t have the same experience or leadership.
She was adding one senior, Kat Wright, a transfer from FAU, who would prove to be a leader from day one.
Barnes retained only three players: senior JaLea Bennett, junior Destiny Graham and sophomore Lucia Alonso.
She knew it was going to be a transition year. What Barnes didn’t realize was just how difficult it would be.
The Wildcats finished 6-24 overall, 2-16 in the Pac-12, and again in 11th place.
But this season was about more than wins and losses. It was about building the foundation of a program.
“Changing the culture was one of the biggest things (this season),” Barnes said. “Making sure we are growing and learning each day and instilling that championship culture; even if we are not winning, doing things the right way. We’re doing everything for the culture and for the future.
“It takes three or four years to build culture and it is by far the most important thing. Culture is everything.
“We weren’t going to win enough games and I wasn’t going to sacrifice the culture to win a few more games this season. I knew this was part of the process. Yet it was hard not winning games.
“The big picture is that we are getting better on and off the court. This team never gave up. They believed.”
The loses started off the court in July, as one of the freshmen — 6-foot-4 forward Mallory Vaughn — decided to stay home. Vaughn was an Adidas All-American and her absence put the team down a body in the middle.
Then Taryn Griffey and Eugenie Simonet-Keller both medically retired at the end of August. Simonet-Keller, at 6 feet 8 inches, was another presence down low. Griffey, a shooter with a high basketball IQ, would have given the team another ball-handler. Now, the Wildcats were down three players.
All of this before the season started.
But Barnes focused on the team she had, always looking ahead, not back … until she was asked about it after the season ended.
“I didn’t talk about it all year; it wasn’t going to change anything,” Barnes said. “We didn’t have an inside presence and it changed the whole (recruiting) class because we didn’t know we wouldn’t have her (Vaughn). So, we didn’t recruit another post player. It was hard. I didn’t think that would happen.”
Despite the lack of bodies, which hindered the team all season, the players listened to their coach. They were never too high after a win or too low after a loss.
The Wildcats focused on the little things to get better each time out.
They were known for their fight, never giving up and not being an easy out.
There were plenty of exciting offensive moments, including Wright hitting five 3-pointers against Colorado, Alonso going 5 for 6 beyond the arc and scoring 19 points against UW, and Ali Reese scoring her first two points of her career against New Mexico State as the UA bench celebrated like they had just won an NCAA championship.
During games, the lack of substitutes would hit the Wildcats hard in one quarter. They’d go on a run where the legs were tired and the shots weren’t falling. Then they’d come back strong, but the hole would be too deep to climb out of. But the Wildcats were tipping passes, diving for 50/50 balls, blocking shots, narrowing passing lanes and mixing it up on defense until the final buzzer.
Barnes typically played a seven or eight-player rotation — and with banged up bodies, from injuries to players forced to play out of position.
Freshman Marlee Kyles was forced to miss three Pac-12 games with a concussion just as she was hitting her stride, averaging 10.6 points per game. It took her a while to get her shooting hand back and the rhythm of the game.
Sammy Fatkin missed practices and games due to illnesses. She walked onto the UA campus with mono and finished the season with surgery to remove her tonsils and adenoids. When she did play, she made it count.
Against Cal in early January, she entered in the second quarter and scored five quick points and grabbed a defensive rebound to keep the Wildcats in the game. Against Washington, Fatkin had seven of her eight points in the first quarter of the come-from-behind, 72-70 victory.
Graham, Bennett and Sam Thomas all slid into the center position at times to make up for that missing true post player. Each gave up a lot to bigger, stronger and taller opponents, but ended with impressive numbers for the season.
Graham and Bennett both doubled their output from the previous year. Bennett, who finished with a total of 922 career points, averaged 13.9 points per game compared to last season’s 5.7. This biggest jump came in total points for the season. This year she scored 417, while last year it was 187. She also grabbed 122 rebounds over last season’s 70.
Graham averaged 3.5 points per game last year, and 8.1 points this season. While her rebounding averaged doubled, her total rebounds increased from 95 to 125.
And then there was Thomas, who Barnes said “works hard every day and wants to be great.” And it showed. Thomas was consistently stuffing the stats and doing the little things that don’t show up on the stat sheet.
She was named to the All-Pac 12 Freshman Team. And just look at her stats compared to the freshman of the year, Oregon’s Satou Sabally:
Points per game: Thomas: 10.2; Sabally: 10.9
Steals: Thomas: 46; Sabally 33
Blocks: Thomas: 39; Sabally: 24
Rebounds: Thomas: 209; Sabally: 128
Rebounds per game: Thomas: 7.0; Sabally: 3.8
Turnovers: Thomas: 52; Sabally: 68
Minutes: Thomas: 1,088; Sabally: 824
Barnes is happy with the steps her program took this season.
“The team made so many huge steps culturally,” she said. “Academically we had the best semester in program history. We were number one in the community (for all sports at UA) last year and so far we are leading that again. We take pride in that and love being in the community, impacting children and families’ lives. They never say no when asked to go out into the community. And I love to see that.
“This team looked me in the eyes, tried to do all the things I asked and that means a lot to me. They stuck with the process. Individually they got better and gained good experience that will help this team in the future.”
Rim shots
• Cate Reese, a McDonald’s All-American and UA signee for the 2018-19 season, has added another postseason accolade. She was named honorable mention All-American by the Naismith Trophy.
Reese, the fourth-ranked forward in the country, according to ESPN, is the highest rated prospect that the UA women’s basketball program has ever signed. In her senior season at Cypress Woods (Texas) High School, she averaged 30.6 points and 15.3 rebounds per game.
• The Pac-12 women’s basketball tournament will move to Las Vegas in 2019 and 2020. In 2019, the tournament will be played at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, and in 2020 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center. Seattle’s KeyArena has hosted the tournament for the last six years. The move was prompted by KeyArena’s renovation, which is expected to take two years.
